Holy Spirit as Wind

9/10 in Spiritual Symbols Series

John 3:8 (NLT) The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.

As He so often did, the Lord Jesus used nature to illustrate spiritual truth. 

In this excerpt from the visit of Nicodemus, Jesus reminded him 

that the wind blows where it wishes, and that a person can hear 

the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. 

The new birth is very much like the wind. 

Firstly, it takes place according to the will of God—

it is not a power that man holds in his own control. 

Secondly, the new birth is invisible—

you cannot see it taking place, 

but you can see the results of it in a person’s life. 

A saved person is a changed person. 

The evil things which she formerly indulged in, she now hates. 

The things of God which she formerly despised, 

are now the very things she loves. 

Just as no one can fully understand the wind, 

so the new birth is a miraculous work of the Spirit of God 

which man is not able to fully comprehend. 

Moreover, the new birth, like the wind, is unpredictable—

it is not possible to state just when and where it will take place.

MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.